


love's complications shouldn't be like this

by mollivanders



Category: Lost
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-14
Updated: 2009-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-30 11:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eloise doesn’t love Charles, but she knows she’s <i>supposed to</i>, so she twists and rocks against him, imitating love. Shuts her eyes and pictures someone taller, older, with darker hair. With purpose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love's complications shouldn't be like this

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: love's complications shouldn't be like this**  
>  Characters: Charles/Eloise, Richard/Eloise  
> Rating: PG  
> Spoilers: Through S5  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. Lost belongs to ABC and JJ Abrams.

Eloise doesn’t love Charles, but she knows she’s _supposed to_ , so she twists and rocks against him, imitating love. Shuts her eyes and pictures someone taller, older, with darker hair. With purpose.

Charles doesn’t know it though, not yet, so when she tells him she’s pregnant his eyes look happy like a father's should. Eloise is even more aware of Richard’s eyes on her back, so she straightens, staring Charles down. _This doesn’t change anything_ , she tells him. Her voice reads: _I’m still in charge_.

Charles’ hands reach out to cradle her belly and she holds back a shudder, wondering what sort of child would come from them.

In the days that follow, she tries to remember what she loved about Charles (once). He is assertive (but aggressive); straightforward (in his lies); protective (of what’s his). He whispers _Ellie_ in the dark and she turns in his arms, pushing him on his back as she kisses him roughly (remember, remember).

 

Eloise wakes hours after killing a man (not her son) to Richard’s watchful guard. 

_You’re awake_ , he gets out before she pins him against a tent pole. _What have you done?_ she demands and winces as nausea hits her. Stands her ground.

 _Saved your life_ , Richard chokes against her throat and points outside. _The island is jumping around, Eloise. None of our scouts have come back._

Eloise drops her arm from his throat and steps outside in time to see a flash, Richard just behind her. 

_How long has the sky been like that?_ she asks, one arm circling protectively around herself, the other resting on her gun.

 _You mean purple?_ Richard answers, watching her profile. _How’s…_ he trails off, staring at her stomach.

Eloise would answer but Charles walks up, interrupting. _You’re awake_ , he announces and drops his hands on her shoulders. _Everything’s fine_ she replies, anticipating his unspoken question.

 _No, it’s not_ , he contradicts and points to the sky. _I’m leaving for the temple to stop this. Coming?_

Eloise reaches inside the tent for another gun, an _of course_ slipping off her lips as Richard touches her arm. _You’re needed here, Eloise._

Charles hears what he wants to hear; nods, kisses her forehead brusquely, and marches out of camp with two men. 

Eloise watches him go with curiosity and nothing else.

Once he’s gone, she looks down at her hands and feels the child inside her kick. For a moment, she blames it for everything until she remembers (not what she’d planned). Her conscience hopes it’s a girl.

She steps backwards as another flash obscures the camp, and then returns to normal. _Could be worse_ , she tells Richard and looks around. _He could make it back._

Richard doesn’t agree, but he doesn’t disagree.

 

Two days later, the sky abruptly clears and the flashes stop. The camp is oddly quiet until Eloise calls everyone out and announces they’ll be moving to a new location, to everyone's relief.

The scouts she sends out come back with Charles, and Charles alone.

He tells the camp how he stopped the island from moving (tells her later about sending men before him to die) as Richard moves to his side. _Love can complicated_ , he tells her later when she scoffs at Charles’ takeover and Richard’s acquiescence. _It doesn’t have to be_ she retorts, and Richard steps marginally closer, closer than before.

 _Charles says women were dying in childbirth_ , Richard warns her (he’s the first). _You might have to leave._

Charles tells her the same thing that night, except his words aren’t a suggestion.

Eloise ignores him. Refuses to accept the slow transfer of power until the first woman dies in labor (a girl she’d ruled over and grown up with). A second dies before the first pains start to shoot through her and leaving is no longer a discussion.

Her last night on the island she throws caution to the wind, sneaks away from the tent she shares with Charles. She finds Richard patrolling camp and acts on impulse. She doesn’t ask permission; she just presses her lips against his and waits for him to push her away.

He doesn’t.

 _I know I have to leave_ she says, and doesn’t wrap it in regret or false hope. _I only wanted you to know_. Her pregnant belly separates them but Richard grips her arms, blocking out the obvious.

His answer is inaudible except for the way it heats her skin, and she shivers in the relative cold. _I know_ , he says, and she lets him go.

 _Charles is a light sleeper_ she tosses over her shoulder. It’s her only goodbye as she heads back the way she came.

He watches her until she disappears behind the morning fog, as though she's lost to another time.

She might as well be.

_Finis_


End file.
